Quick Tips

Get Back Your Background Layer

Lost your Background layer? It happens. It's heartbreaking, but it happens. If you suddenly find yourself staring at a Layers palette and there's no Background layer (chances are you accidentally converted your Background layer into a regular layer), here's how to get a Background layer again: Click on the Create a New Layer icon, then go under the Layer menu, under New, and choose Background From Layer, and Photoshop will take your new blank layer and create a solid white Background layer at the bottom of your layer stack.

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6 comments

  1. Herb LeRoy 6 August, 2011 at 02:34 Reply

    I have just purchased PS CS5 (Mac) – downloaded and installed (several times). When I open up the program, I get all the essential panels but no background. The panels are floating over the desktop. When I open an image or ‘new’ file, I will then get the usual grey background but have to stretch it to fill the screen.

    Am I missing something here? Should I not always have the grey background by default when the program loads?

  2. Taber 22 August, 2012 at 14:52 Reply

    Awesome, thanks for the tip! They should have labeled the menu item “Layer with Background…” instead of “Layer from Background…” since it actually moves/converts the currently selected layer to a background layer as opposed to making a copy of it.

  3. Taber 22 August, 2012 at 14:54 Reply

    Oops, scratch that, reverse it. Of course I meant “Background with Layer…” vs “Background from Layer…” anyway, whatever, cool tip!

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